Abstract: According to the raster data of natural environment and socio-economy of Yinjiang County, a typical karst trough region in Guizhou Province, we established the spatial database of eco-environmental vulnerability indexes with grid size of 30 m × 30 m based on remote sensing (RS) and geography information system (GIS). The index system includes aspects of sensitivity, elasticity, and pressure. Moreover, the levels of ecological vulnerability are classified by using comprehensive index method and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Results show that potentially and slightly vulnerable areas accounted for a large proportion of the study area, taking up 86.60% and 87.37% in 2010 and 2015 respectively; whereas heavily and extremely vulnerable areas accounted for a small proportion of the study area. Areas of high vulnerability mostly distributed in regions of large population density, low vegetation coverage, large topographic relief and high intensity of human activity. The research results would offer theoretical reference for the ecological restoration and reconstruction and the environmental protection of the study area, and the assessment model in the present research is applicable to the assessment of eco-environment vulnerability at provincial and municipal levels.

Key words: Karst trough region, ecological environment, vulnerability assessment, grid scale, index method, AHP